I don’t even know how to start this. There’s so many ways, because this whole thing came upon us all so quick. And to say there’s a worst aspect of it is really misinformed. I mean, the worst result would technical be death, so I guess anything other than that would be favorable. But the other things are the most inconvenient/annoying things a lot of us have had to deal with. I mean, did you ever think you couldn’t walk into McDonald’s and have something to eat? Or that you’d get “the eye” from people if you stood closer than six feet to them. Clorox wipes a hard find? And is Lobster Fest REALLY going on if there’s nobody there to eat it? Additionally, to everyone who’s house I toilet papered when I was in high school: waste not, want not. You’re welcome.
As far as everything else goes, I really have a love/hate relationship with the world right now. One half is absolutely disgusted with people pushing people while trying to get toilet paper, people busting people’s heads open over a case of water, people grabbing whatever they can whenever they can in case they run out of something you don’t eat anyway. And the blame. Seriously? How anyone could blame anyone for this is beyond me. It’s a virus. It would’ve been spread no matter what. Now, the other half of me is SO proud. So proud that I’m logging on to social media and seeing people post that they can babysit for people, that they have extra of something if anyone needs it, they’re posting FACTS about what’s going on and not speculation and rumors, and their posting places to call and where to go if people have questions of need help. It’s really too bad that there’s no happy medium where society could sit. Not the Cleavers, but certainly not the Bundy’s’. I guess I’m thinking of somewhere near the Cunningham’s’.
Okay, I’m not going to waste your time with any “please wash your hands” or “please stay home shit”, you all know the drill. The only thing I’m going to seriously ask you to do is to be polite. Be courteous. I’m not asking you to lick anybody, just be decent. Oh, one last thing. You know that stuff you always complain that you never have time to do? You got the time now. Don’t waste it.
Her Take:
It’s hard not to touch things. Like, harder than you think, hard. And just when you think you’re finally getting the hang of it, you realize that the last molecules of the tips of your fingers are disconnecting themselves from a door, or a cup, or a chair, and you hadn’t even thought about the fact that you aren’t supposed to touch things.
Sure, you could call this an overabundance of caution if you wanted. You could accuse me of being a Drama Queen. I mean, that applies to me at numerous and random times throughout the day, so that’s probably either just been, currently is, or is about to be a fair assessment anyway. But I’m an adult, I’ve made my choices, and now I’m going to complain about them on the internet just like other adults.
But first, we rewind. I started my work day on Monday (March 16th) in my office, writing the first draft of what would eventually be the basis for the communication about my employer’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It repeated a lot of what other businesses are saying: We’re taking precautions, we want our employees to be safe, we want you to be safe, OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE DON’T COUGH ON US!! Ok, not the last part, but all the rest.
The thing was, we hadn’t formally agreed on a response. I was writing it, not knowing what would happen, because I had a feeling that when we knew, we wouldn’t have any time to sit on it. Sure, by all indications, I’m at least 67% dangerously irreverent, but I take my job seriously and I wanted this communication to be as close to perfect as we could make it. It had to walk the line between ‘We don’t want you to panic’ and ‘We’re not screwing around here.’. Those two things seem pretty far apart until you have to balance yourself right on that line.
That’s really the last time I remember not knowing our lives were changing. Not realizing that this is going to be something that people mark time by. You WILL say, in your lifetime, something like ‘Was that before the pandemic, or after?’ Maybe not those exact words, more likely it will be ‘Yeah, no, (if you’re from Wisconsin) this was before the pandemic when people still ________ (insert thing that was normal 2 weeks ago and slowly goes away… like hotdogs on a roller grill maybe.)’
That Monday afternoon, I was in the meeting were it was decided by a unanimous vote that we were going to close the lobbies of our credit union branches and everyone who could work from home was going to until further notice. I had packed my laptop up and brought it with me, so I went straight home after that meeting and have been here - except for a trip to the store on Thursday afternoon, which was pretty much the highlight of the week for me socially - ever since. Because of my job, I spent all week almost entirely immersed in reading about and writing about what’s happening. And it’s surreal.
Then, to make it surreal-er, on Thursday I started sniffling. My nose was a little runny, nothing serious, and I decided that it could be because of the rain and cold (and despair) and chose to step up my disinfecting just to be sure. There are 5 of us in the house most of the time right now, and I wanted to keep it to myself. Then, on Friday morning, I was a little worse. By breakfast time there were other… um… more troubling intestinal symptoms. And by lunch time I was both miserably sick: sneezing, coughing, runny nose, … experiencing distress in my southern hemisphere, and scared out of my mind that I was going to pass it on to someone else in my house. That’s when the not touching things started.
Well, it actually started with me confining myself to my bedroom and looking first for evidence that I HAD COVID-19 and then, when I realized that I had maybe ½ of one of the 4 most common symptoms of that virus, looking for proof I didn’t have it. So, yeah, I’ve had a lot of fun days in quarantine so far.
So, there we are. I’m working really hard not to touch anything. Well, at least anything anyone else needs to touch, because I want them to stay well. I want to NOT have this cold cycle through our house over and over just because I chose not to sanitize a stupid door knob. I want to be well, I want us all to be well, but mostly, I want this all to not seem so dire, right?
It’s a stupid cold, I’m sure, and it will go the way most stupid colds do, but I can’t help but think about all of the people out there saying things like ‘Why is everybody freaking out? MOST of the fatalities are the elderly or people who were already sick.’. My parents were born during World War II, they’re elderly. My mom is also diabetic, as is my 5 year old granddaughter. SO.. yeah, I can’t see my parents right now, and I can’t hug my granddaughter, and I really want this part to end.
It will be a long time before we get back to normal, and normal will be different, but if we start today, focusing on what we’re supposed to do, we’ll see a light at the end of the tunnel.
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